Memory Span and Working Memory

What is Memory?

Memory is the process of maintaining information over time.

There are three important aspects of information processing:

1. Memory Encoding

It allows the perceived item of use or interest to be converted into a construct that can be stored within the brain and recalled later from short-term or long-term memory

There are three main ways in which information can be encoded (changed):

1. Visual (picture)

2. Acoustic (sound)

3. Semantic (meaning)

For example, how do you remember a telephone number you have looked up in the phone book?

If you can see it then you are using visual coding, but if you are repeating it to yourself you are using acoustic coding (by sound).

2. Memory Storage

This concerns the nature of memory stores, i.e. where the information is stored, how long the memory lasts for (duration), how much can be stored at any time (capacity) and what kind of information is held.

The way we store information affects the way we retrieve it.

According to Miller (1956) Most adults can store between 5 and 9 items in their short-term memory.  The capacity was 7 (plus or minus 2) items because it only had a certain number of “slots” in which items could be stored.

However, Miller didn’t specify the amount of information that can be held in each slot.  Indeed, if we can “chunk” information together we can store a lot more information in our short-term memory. 

3. Memory Retrieval

It is a process of accessing stored memories. When you are taking an exam, you need to be able to retrieve learned information from your memory in order to answer the test questions. If we can’t remember something, it may be because we are unable to retrieve it.

What is Memory Span?

Memory span refers to the amount of items includes numbers, letters, or words, that a person has the ability to remember.

Short term memory refers to where we keep information that we can readily tap into and utilize. We have the ability to keep information in short term memory for an estimated 18 to 20 seconds.

The example of memory span would be the digit span.  A digit-span task is used to measure working memory's number storage capacity. Participants see or hear a sequence of numerical digits and are tasked to recall the sequence correctly, with increasingly longer sequences being tested in each trial. The amount of items that a person can correctly recall in order is the person's memory span for the particular task. For example, Child 1 memory span is 13, given that he was able to correctly identify all 13 numbers. Given that the average memory span is seven items, Child 1 scores indicate that his memory span is better than most. Memory span tests do not always ask you to recall numbers. For example, you could be given a list of words or letters of the alphabet to recall instead. And also Digit-span tasks can be given forwards or backwards, meaning that once the sequence is presented, the participant is asked to either recall the sequence in normal or reverse order.

The video below would further help us to understand the digit span test.

What is Working memory?

Working memory is a bit more complicated because it measures how many items a person can hold in immediate memory while also doing some processing or thinking about those items. often referred to as short-term memory,

According to Baddeley (2002), working memory involves the temporary storage and manipulation of information that is assumed to be necessary for a wide range of complex cognitive activities.

For example,  a child using  their working memory as they recall the steps of a recipe while cooking a favorite meal.  working memory involves our ability to retain visually learned information momentarily while we analyze it.

Verbal working memory is involved in many everyday tasks, such as remembering a friend's telephone number while entering it into a phone and understanding long and difficult sentences.

Have you ever gone to the store without a list, thinking you’ll remember everything you need…but discovered when you got home that you forgot several items? If so, you’ve experienced the limitations of working memory.

The video below would further help us to understand the working memory.

Author's Insight:

Memory is essential to all our lives. Without a memory of the past we cannot operate in the present or think about the future. We would not be able to remember what we did yesterday, what we have done today or what we plan to do tomorrow.  Without memory we could not learn anything. I realize that working memory can help kids to hold on to information long enough to use it. And it plays an important role in concentration and in following instructions. Weak working memory skills can affect learning in many different subject areas including reading and math. 

Author's Insights: Inhibition and Resistance to Interference

             

             The blog post that was uploaded  last time was about the inhibition and resistance to interference. Inhibition, for me, is the ability to prevent the distractions from the surroundings to be able to focus on the task that a person is doing. Failures to inhibit some responses can interfere with making other responses. This means that when a person is not capable of inhibiting or preventing the interruptions, he or she cannot be able to give full attention to the task. However, children’s ability to inhibit task-irrelevant responses increases with development. Older people are more able to focus  on a certain task than children because as we grow old, our tasks and responsibilities are getting bigger and heavier so it is a must for us to increase our inhibition and resistance to interference.

          On the other hand, resistance to interference means that eliminating distractions through inhibition eliminates potential interference. This means that if one person develops a higher inhibition to distractions and interruptions, he or she will more likely to finish his or her tasks successfully. I would like to share my experiences regarding this topic.

            As a 4^th year BS Psychology student, I have so many things to do because there are so many requirements to finish. Thesis, transcription of data, constructing themes, presentations and graded recitations, quizzes, and money. These are some of the stressors I am having as of the moment. After reading this topic, I learned something. I learned that I should break down my tasks into parts so that it won’t be so memory demanding. I should manage my time more appropriately. I should not let my mind be bombarded with these tasks because if I let it interrupt me, I will not finish my work very well. Also, external supports are important because every people need to feel that they are supported and loved to keep us motivated.

How ‘bout you? How do you manage your time? Can you share your stories/ideas on the comment section.

SEMANTIC DEVELOPMENT

Semantic or vocabulary development is an essential part in a child’s growth. According to an article by Rosselli, Ardilla, Matute, & Uribe (2014), children produce recognizable words between 12 and 18 months of age. A vocabulary burst called “word spurt” happens around 18 months of age. Word spurt is the rapid increase in words as observed in some children. There are also differences when it comes to word spurt. Children begin after their first birthday or others are not starting until the age of 2 or even later.

Another concept in Semantic Development is fast mapping. This is the children’s remarkable ability to map linguistic labels to referents in the world (Vlach & Sandhofer, 2012). Commonly, children produce noun words first. They also say words that are relevant to social interactions such as hello or bye bye. Children increase their semantic ability during school years because they are exposed to more knowledge and they are also experiencing interactions with different people.

Author’s Insights:

It is interesting to know how children develop their language skills. I think what is more important in semantic development is the presence and support of other people, especially the parents, because children usually produce words that they hear often in their primary environment. Development is a gradual process and it is important that parents or guardians are there to provide guidance since every step or milestone in a child’s development is an essential part of what he/she will be in the future. 

INHIBITION AND RESISTANCE TO INTERFERENCE

Imagine that you are reviewing for your examinations tomorrow then your thoughts drift to what you are going to do tonight like going out with friends after you review. If you let those thoughts intrude in your reviewing, you will wind up at the end having no idea of what you just read, although perhaps knowing that pizza and beer are in your near future.

To keep these  thoughts out of consciousness requires an active process of inhibition.

  

By the way, what do we mean by INHIBITION?

Inhibition refers to the ability to prevent making some cognitive or behavioral response.

            A study by Diamond, Taylor, & Harnishfeger stated that children’s abilities to inhibit preferred or well established responses and to keep intrusive thoughts out of mind plays an important role in cognitive development.

            The second term is RESISTANCE TO INTERFERENCE.

            It refers to susceptibility to performance decrements under conditions of multiple distracting stimuli.

            Resistance to interference is the ability to ignore irrelevant information so that it does not impede task performance. Here’s another example:

When you are performing a task (reviewing) and it interferes with performing a             second task (eating), one must focus on central information (studying) and ignore                 peripheral information (eating).

           

Remember that:

Children sometimes have difficulty inhibiting their behavior, thoughts, & when they do more so than is typical for their age, it can result in problems in their schoolwork and social relation. Also, Inhibition abilities continue to develop over early childhood and into adolescence and are assessed by a variety of simple test.

So how about you? Can you eliminate the distractions in your surroundings and focus more on your task or not? You can share it in the comment box!

BILINGUALISM

BILINGUALISM

As we all know bilingualism refers to an individual who speaks more than one language. Bilingualism can be under the part of language development which may later generate to communication skills of an individual according to Lowry Lauren a certified speech-language pathologist research shows that our world is becoming increasingly multilingual. Consider some of the following statistics: In Canada 11.9 % of the population speaks a language other than English or French at home. In Toronto, 31% of the population speaks a language other than English or French at home. In the United States 21% of school-age children (between ages 5-17) speak a language other than English at home. This number is projected to increase in the coming years. Worldwide, it is estimated that there are more second language speakers of English than native speakers. there are as many bilingual children as there are monolingual children.

These trends mean that many children are being raised as bilinguals. Sometimes bilingualism is a necessity, as a child’s parents may not be fluent in the majority (dominant) language spoken in the community. Therefore, the child may learn one language at home and another at school. But sometimes bilingualism is a choice, and parents may wish to expose their child to another language, even if they do not speak a second language themselves. This could be due to the many benefits of being bilingual.

How children learn more than one language
Bilingual acquisition can take place in one of two ways:
Simultaneous Acquisition occurs when a child is raised bilingually from birth, or when the second language is introduced before the age of three (10). Children learning two languages simultaneously go through the same developmental stages as children learning one language. While bilingual children may start talking slightly later than monolingual children, they still begin talking within the normal range (11). From the very beginning of language learning, simultaneous bilinguals seem to acquire two separate languages (10). Early on, they are able to differentiate their two languages and have been shown to switch languages according to their conversation partner (e.g. speak French to a French-speaking parent, then switch to English with an English-speaking parent) (12, 13).
Sequential Acquisition occurs when a second language is introduced after the first language is well-established (generally after the age of three). Children may experience sequential acquisition if they immigrate to a country where a different language is spoken. Sequential learning may also occur if the child exclusively speaks his heritage language at home until he begins school, where instruction is offered in a different language.

A child who acquires a second language in this manner generally experiences the following (10): 

initially, he may use his home language for a brief period.
he may go through a “Silent” or “Nonverbal” Period when he is first exposed to a second language. This can last from a few weeks to several months, and is most likely a time when the child builds his understanding of the language (14). Younger children usually remain in this phase longer than older children. Children may rely on using gestures in this period, and use few words in the second language.
he will begin to use short or imitative sentences. The child may use one-word labels or memorized phrases such as “I dunno” or “What’s this?”. These sentences are not constructed from the child’s own vocabulary or knowledge of the language. Rather, they are phrases he has heard and memorized.
eventually, he will begin to produce his own sentences. These sentences are not entirely memorized, and incorporate some of the child’s own newly-learned vocabulary. The child may use a “formula” at first when constructing sentences and insert his own word into a common phrase such as “I want…” or “I do….”. Eventually the child becomes more and more fluent, but continues to make grammatical mistakes or produce sentences that sound abbreviated because he is missing some grammatical rules (e.g. “I no want eat apple” instead of “I don’t want to eat an apple”). Some of the mistakes a child makes at this stage are due to the influence of his first language. But many of the mistakes are the same types of mistakes that monolingual children make when they learn that language.

Author's insights : BILINGUALISM LIGHT-BULB MOMENT WITH THE BILINGUALISM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN INDIVIDUAL. WHAT IS BILINGUALISM IN MY OWN PERCEPTION? As have been stated, bilingualism is the capability to know more than one language and basically it is part of the development of an individual’s language skills. When in comes to language development, not everyone is fortunate to have a good communication skill. Some would lack this particular ability. There is one article that I have read which stated that some children were not able to develop their language skills. The article stated that some children tend to have an unfortunate situation in which their development of language skills is delayed. Some of the symptoms of those who have the capacity to obtain a delayed speech ability was first they tend to react less. By means of react is their lack of response for the things that are being presented to them by the use of language. Say for example, a child was not able to retaliate though she or he can react by means of nonverbal actions such as smiling or crying. The latter were the signs or symptoms of having a delayed speech ability. On the other hand, some children could actually learn speaking in language easily. The truth is some children cannot just speak one language but more. This is what we call the bilingualism. Those who can use more than one language. Honestly I am very much fascinated by those children who can use more than one language because honestly learning just one is hard how much more learning two or more. “if you are willing to learn you are able to attain” -Mythos Dominguez

Author's Insights: Normative vs. Idiographic

IDIOGRAPHIC		NORMATIVE (Male & Female)
Male	Female
(Physical) Broad shoulders	(Physical) Breast enlargement	Nationality (Filipino, American, etc.)
(Physical) Circumcision	(Physical) Menstruation	Age increases
(Behavior) Disorganized	(Behavior) Organized	Develop maturity
(Behavior) Secretive	(Behavior) Open	Experience puberty
(Behavior) More aggressive	(Behavior) Timid	Fall in love

           

           The issue in development that was discussed a while ago is about the similarities and differences of each and everyone of us. The illustration above displays our similarities and differences as we grow up.

            As you can see in the idiographic, males have broader shoulders than females while females have larger breasts than males. Males experience circumcision once in their lives while females menstruate every month. In terms of behavior, males are known to be more disorganized than females that's why they usually depend on females because they are more organized. Also, males are known for being secretive compared to females, who are open, so that males tend to have higher risk on developing depression. Lastly, males are more aggressive because they want others to see them as strong while females are timid because they want to show that they are ladylike. On the normative side, both males and females have nationality whether it is Filipino, American, etc. Second, both genders' age increases. As their age increases, their maturity also develops. Both genders also experience puberty and lastly, as they grow up, both genders are capable of falling in love.

            All in all, males and females have both similarities and differences. However, it is not necessary to have all things equally between males and females. The more important thing is to love and to accept each other's differences and be more understanding of other people's shortcomings.

            So can you share your insights regarding this issue? Feel free to comment it below! :)

Author's Insights: Nature vs. Nurture

From the last blog entry about Nature vs. Nurture, I discussed about what nature and nurture means and I also included some citations from different journals. For this entry, the approach will be more personal since I would discuss my personal thoughts regarding the issue or the so-called debate as well as share some of my experiences related to the topic of Nature vs. Nurture.

The traits or characteristics that I inherited from my parents are more on the physical aspect. Many people say that I look like my mother but I can also say that there are physical features that I also got from my father like the eyes. I think that what I am now is an effect of what I experienced before. For example, I am not an active student way back elementary. I used to be shy and quiet but as I entered high school, I was exposed to different activities that really enhanced how I carry myself in front of other people and now, I can say that I am more confident with myself. That characteristic of mine came from the influence of external factors.

And now, I will share my personal thoughts regarding Nature vs. Nurture. I think that there should be no debate regarding the two concepts. Yes, there are characteristics that are inherited but there are also traits that are influenced by experiences. Both are helpful in human development and it only differs on where that behavior came from. Whether it is inherited or learned through experience, what is important is how that behavior affects us NOW.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? I encourage everyone to share your own experiences and thoughts regarding this matter. Your ideas and comments are highly appreciated. J